TheChat: Eric Greitens cites time with family for his decision to quit the Navy Reserve

▪ "Had hoped to continue to serve, but just found that I couldn't be a great Navy officer in the reserves again and a great Dad at the same time.” — Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens explaining why he quit the Navy Reserve in 2015 after committing to a four-year stint.

By dropping out early, Greitens had to repay his signing bonus. He also lost the ability for his children to use his military education benefits. Greitens had promised to release all of his military records, but until recently, he had released only about half of them. (link via johncombest.com).

▪ “Number one, we've got to educate them.” — Missouri Republican lieutenant governor candidate Mike Parson, a long-time farmer, on the way to get more young people into agriculture.

Another path forward for the farm is agri-tourism, Parson said, or bringing tourists out to corn mazes and allowing them to bale hay. That will promote the industry, he said.

▪ “In our opinion, when there’s a significant tax policy change, the system breaks down, and that’s exactly what we’ve been through in the state of Kansas the last four years.” — Sam Williams, chairman of a task force that looked at better ways to predict state revenue. He was referring to the 2012 tax cuts that made forecasts more difficult.

Kansas leaders are struggling to come up with a better way to forecast revenue. Everyone agrees there’s a problem. It’s the solution that’s proving elusive.